Simple summary. The Phoenix entity comes back into existence and teams up with Darkside of all people. They want to destroy the Earth and recreate the planet known as 'apocalypse'* because that's what Darkseid does. And the Teen Titans in the X-Men half the team up to stop them.
And it's sadly an underwhelming book. The steak should be super high having two omnipresent people teamed up together to destroy the world. But you don't really get a sense of any real power. Darkside doesn't fight anybody directly, he just keeps using these silly alien monsters to do his bidding. Or he hires Deathstroke The Terminator. Who like in so many other comic books is overpowered and overplayed.
Don't get me wrong I like Slade Wilson quite a bit. He's one of my favourite villains, but there's no way in all of Tartarus that he could fight the X-Men and Teen Titans simultaneously. He's just a guy at the end of the day I really hyper train a guy but nothing more. He's supposed to be the equivalent of a evil Batman.
And even while fighting them his powers are inconsistent. He fights Robin head-on at one point and knocks him to the floor but in another scenario he can barely keep up with Wolverine**.
So this comic exist in that strange alternative Universe where both DC and Marvel have their stories happening simultaneously. And it makes things really confusing when you see the Teen Titans referring to the X-Men as that Rogue group.
And it all becomes more baffling when you realise that both the X-Men and the Teen Titans have live their entire lives beforehand, never interacting with each other.
The Teen Titans still fought Trigon, the X-Men still fought the Phoenix. And they both have alien races that they interact with from time to time. Even Starfire makes reference to the Shi'ar aliens who fought the Phoenix way back in the day and her people are aware of the Phoenix itself.
(That's the beauty of Starfire. She is great for exposition. Want to introduce a weird wacky alien race to the world. Just have Starfire mentioned that she known of them before and that her species had some contact with them. Then she can list off their bio and how they act in a really convenient paragraph.)
Because this is a collaboration book you have to have an introduction bio for both Teen Titans and X-Men. Which also means we need a lot of exposition to explain them.
This eats up a lot of time in the book, and it slows the pace down, if you're already familiar with the basic story. I get its necessity but it doesn't help with the overall rhythm.
And then there's the problem of the overall story. It's just not that fantastical. You would think with Darkside and the Phoenix teamed up together that they would be some mighty Clash of strength or a great battle that has to commands, but alas nothing like that really happens. like all the other stories involving an overpowered Phoenix the X-Men resort to their Scott Summers card. In where they power the Phoenix down by the internal conflict of Jean Grey trying to reassert herself as the dominant being. Of course this never works and Scott Summers always left depressed and unhappy at the end knowing that his wife is dead again.
And by doing this giving an opportunity to Raven and Professor X to use some sort of psychic attack to push the Phoenix back yet again. Thus propelling her back into the non-existing world from which she came.
And then there's Darkside who's just kind of there. He has an air of authority about him and seems to think that he's more powerful than the Phoenix. And maybe in some circumstances he is but ultimately he's the second fiddle villain to this whole thing. And becomes even more pointless when you consider that most of the action comes from Deathstroke.
There's a little Amusement to be had and seeing the Teen Titans having to break into the Xavier house because they think the X-Men are the culprits to their current problem. And having all of them trying to fight the telepathic Xavier. In which they only win because Raven was able to telepathically lock the professor and knock him out. And the only reason any of this happens is because Starfire went a little insane and went straight into attacking the professor, thinking that he might be the Phoenix entity.
I think that's the only highlight in this entire book. Starfire is a little overboard and really quick to anger. Which if you've never read Teen Titans before gives you a really bad image of what Starfire is supposed to be. Yes her race is known for their quick temper and extreme emotions but generally she's more of a happy and compassionate character. Not that you'd know it here.
Ultimately I just don't think two teams work all that well together. The Teen Titans are still very much in there where ''mutants and therefore were shunned by Society'' state. But it seems kind of strange when you're standing next to the Teen Titans who are even more obscure and strange than the X-Men themselves.
It also doesn't help this book had a magnifying glass above it as the two major corporate companies made sure that none of their characters were misrepresented in the crossover. Which is always a problem when wanting to mix franchises. Still it's better than the X-Men meet Star Trek either the original or generation. At least this one has some action and fun to it and everything turns out for the better.
If it was me making this, I would have cut the length and half and had Jean Grey interacting with Raven. Given that their powers and ultimate outcomes are oddly smiler. Maybe mix in a little personal drama with changeling and Nightcrawler or Kitty Pride.
Keep it simple Don't Go Over the Top maybe have a little fun with it.
Or have one of the teams transferred into the others Universe. The whole interconnected continuity is really confusing and just makes things problematic, especially when dealing with a large very detailed and personalised teams.
If you want to see Changeling transform into Lockheed the dragon this is the book for you. It's quite the amusing little sequence.
If I was to compare this comic to food it would be an Oreo pancake. It's two things I loved mix together to create something that's okay but ultimately not as good as either of the individual items.
*Not to be confused with X-Men Apocalypse.
**Wolverine might be the most inconsistent superhero in all popular comics. Sometimes he's a mighty Juggernaut able to take on wave after wave of enemies. He can push down super-powered bad guys like Omega Red and fight other overpowered Deities from time to time as well. He can even stand toe-to-toe with the Hulk in the right circumstance. And then there were other comics and adaptations where Wolverine can get mowed down by the most pathetic peon.
Able to be shoved aside by a simple laser blast.
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